Veteran left-wing politician Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labor Party on Saturday in a landslide vote, casting a spotlight on deep ideological divisions in the once-dominant political organization.Corbyn, 66, who won nearly 60% of the votes in the four-candidate race, favors Britain’s withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, nuclear disarmament and renationalization of the energy sector.He is also staunchly anti-austerity and has pledged to apologize for the Labor Party’s role in launching the 2003 U.S.-led Iraqi invasion.As Corbyn gave his acceptance speech, shadow health minister Jamie Reed resigned from his post, citing ideological differences over nuclear policies.Reed was followed by several other senior Labor members who said they would nonetheless continue to serve their party from the backbenches of Parliament.Corbyn’s popularity has caught many by surprise. He has been a member of Parliament since 1983 but always remained on the periphery of his party, and he entered the race as an outsider. He was the oldest candidate in the field and is a vegetarian who loves to cycle and often appears somewhat disheveled, rarely wearing a tie.His campaign gained ever-increasing momentum in recent weeks, especially among young voters.Hitting back at claims that the younger generation is apathetic to politics, Corbyn said the problem was that they were “turned off by the way that politics was being conducted.” That must be changed, he said.Corbyn has promised to take the party back to its roots, away from the more moderate times of the New Labor era of prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.”To those returning to the party who were in it before and felt disillusioned, welcome back, welcome to your party, welcome home,” he said.Corbyn’s predecessor, Ed Miliband, resigned as party leader after losing the May election to Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron. Miliband pledged his support to Corbyn but expressed hope that he would reach out to all parts of the party.Before the election, Blair said that Corbyn as party leader could lead to the possible “annihilation” of the Labor Party at the next election. When the vote was announced Saturday, Conservative Party leaders quickly expressed dismayDefense Secretary Michael Fallon described the result as a “very serious moment” for Britain, and said that it posed a “risk to our national security, to our economic security, to the security of your family.”Corbyn, who secured 59.5% of the vote, …Read More